Friday afternoon I got to hang out in Ronald Reagan National Airport for a couple of hours with an old pal. The manager of the Borders in National Airport used to run the Borders Express in Manassas, VA. I signed books with him there and he invited me to do the same at his new store. As always it was a blast to greet the travelers and sign some novels.
But that’s not all the news. For example, one of my readers, Branko Dusan, has begun an…
Continue
Added by Austin S. Camacho on July 21, 2008 at 10:53pm —
No Comments
I love it when I have a new featured review to post on my web site.
I met Bonnie Webster at a recent event at the Borders in Dulles Town Center. We chatted for a bit and I learned that she's an Army brat like my kids, only her dad was a WWII hero who gave 31 years to his country.
It was a real pleasure to hear from her, especially when she had such kind things to say about my novel, The Troubleshooter. Of course the best compliment for a writer is to hear that a reader is…
Continue
Added by Austin S. Camacho on July 20, 2008 at 11:22pm —
No Comments
Diane Williams is a Jersey girl born and raised in Newark, but now she’s one of my neighbors in Upper Marlboro, MD., a suburb on the other side of DC. She’s a writer and publisher (22nd Century Press) and when she didn’t see a social network that was what she wanted, she created one herself!
She designed
Black Author Showcase to help writers in creating, preparing, writing, and marketing their work. Its aim is to…
Continue
Added by Austin S. Camacho on July 20, 2008 at 12:19am —
No Comments
I already told you I'm signing at Borders in Ronald Reagan National Airport this afternoon, but now I want to tell you about one of the Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) I picked up at Thrillerfest.
In the world of thrillers, almost every book has a good tag line. My pick for best of the year is on the front cover of the ARC of "
Angel's Tip" by Alafair Burke. How could any thriller or mystery fan pass up a book…
Continue
Added by Austin S. Camacho on July 18, 2008 at 11:16pm —
2 Comments
Tomorrow afternoon I greet the folks going into or dropping out of the friendly skies at Ronald Reagan National Airport. From 1 pm to 3 pm I'll sit in at the Borders Booksellers in the airport. Departing folks know the Washington National airport is really in Virginia. Those landing there don't really care. But either way, if you're traveling Friday in our area, stop by and get a book signed and I'll tell you where to get a great meal while you're here.
Added by Austin S. Camacho on July 17, 2008 at 10:23pm —
No Comments
Lately I’ve been exploring crossover fiction (at the suggestion of my agent who says these books are hot) and I must admit I’ve enjoyed what I found. This week I want to share a lost classic that I found in my local used book store (Burke Used Books if you live near me.)
A couple decades before Jim Butcher introduced us to Harry Dresden, Mike Resnick put New York private eye John Justin Mallory into a supernatural setting. “…
Continue
Added by Austin S. Camacho on July 16, 2008 at 10:43pm —
No Comments
Thrillerfest was an almost impossibly good time. I got to talk to all the names: Sandra Brown, Harlan Coben, Kathy Reichs, Barry Eisler, Patterson, Baldacci, Von Lustbader... there isn’t space. The panels were wonderful, including the one I got to be on. The interviews instructive and the banquet top notch. But I must admit that the best part for me – even above the weapons demo given by the ATF - was chatting with my agent, who happens to be married to an editor at Tor. I also spent some time…
Continue
Added by Austin S. Camacho on July 16, 2008 at 12:16pm —
No Comments
Tonight I’m off to
Thrillerfest. I will be one of countless authors present, but the star-studded cast will also include ThrillerMaster Sandra Brown and Spotlight Authors Eric Van Lustbader, Dr. Kathy Reichs (the real “Bones”), and Brad Thor. Sandra Brown will be receiving her ThrillerMaster Award from 2007 ThrillerMaster James Patterson.
There will be lots of fans there too, so if you’re in the NYC area, come mix and mingle…
Continue
Added by Austin S. Camacho on July 10, 2008 at 9:42pm —
No Comments
Tomorrow I head for Thrillerfest in New York (drop me a note if you’re in that area) but today I want to tell you about one of my other favorite web sites.
I post something almost every day on Gather. Gather is a place to stay in touch with your friends, with your family, and with the world. You can always find smart articles about the latest political debate or that new hit movie. Members also post interesting photos and video. It’s a great place for me to keep everyone up to date…
Continue
Added by Austin S. Camacho on July 9, 2008 at 10:52pm —
No Comments
Last week I mentioned the challenge of writing during my lunch hour at my day job - people assuming that this is a good time to interrupt my flow, as if there WERE no lunch break. I received a few interesting suggestions for cure, like taking my laptop and lunching at the nearby Starbucks, but the most refreshing response came from my fraternity brother Gary who gave what he described as the Dilbert response:
“Put a sign on your office door that says, "LUNCH HOUR -- I am currently on…
Continue
Added by Austin S. Camacho on July 8, 2008 at 10:56pm —
No Comments
Today I make the first of several guest blog appearances promoting my author-targeted book, “Successfully Marketing Your Novel in the 21st Century.” I’ll be on All Book Marketing, a book marketing blog run by publicist and online PR specialist Jennifer Mattern, who owns JH Mattern Communications. The blog addresses book publicity and promotion issues from getting media coverage for a new book to overall author publicity and tactics for increasing book sales. The blog is designed to be a…
Continue
Added by Austin S. Camacho on July 7, 2008 at 10:16pm —
No Comments
Like I always say sometimes, the good news IS the bad news. I had a nice, peaceful three-day holiday weekend which I spent entirely with my lovely wife Denise. The reason for that extra family time is that the bookstore at which I was scheduled to do a signing did not receive my books in time from the distributor. Disappointing? Only until I realized that meant we emptied the warehouse with unexpected demand. And it just meant more brats on the barbie between rainstorms.
But that…
Continue
Added by Austin S. Camacho on July 7, 2008 at 6:20am —
No Comments
One of the best things about attending writers’ conferences is the chance to meet new writers and learn of their work before anybody else does. At Deadly Ink I got to know Peggy Ehrhart, a charming Jersey girl who used to teach English but now mostly writes fiction and plays guitar. She has written a mystery that didn’t at first look like my kind of book but held a few surprises.
The book, “…
Continue
Added by Austin S. Camacho on July 6, 2008 at 6:21am —
No Comments
Bebo characterizes itself as a next generation social networking service where members can stay in touch with their College friends, connect with friends, share photos, discover new interests and just hang out. In addition to a number of fun applications that you can add to your profile, Bebo offers easy ways to explore videos, music, a variety of groups and in one section, authors. Of course, my books are all listed in their author section at the bottom of the page - with excerpts to read.…
Continue
Added by Austin S. Camacho on July 4, 2008 at 11:23pm —
No Comments
As most of you know, I am not yet so successful a writer that I can pay a Northern Virginia mortgage with the royalties. I continue my Clark Kent job, handling media relations for the Defense Department. For years I’ve used my lunch hour to work on my writing, but lately my professional world has become chaotic thanks to a shifting mission and personnel turnovers that force me to spend more and more time training new folks.
One thing I haven’t been able to train them to understand is…
Continue
Added by Austin S. Camacho on July 3, 2008 at 10:07pm —
1 Comment
I pride myself on the readers my work attracts, and I met some pretty impressive people at the Philadelphia book fair not long ago. One of those people was Lynn Penn, who is not merely a chemistry professor, but is in fact the head of the Chemistry Department at Drexel University! Even though she didn’t get around to my novel, Blood and Bone, for nearly a month she was kind enough to write to me to let me know how much she enjoyed it. Every author wants to hear that his work kept someone up all…
Continue
Added by Austin S. Camacho on July 2, 2008 at 10:47pm —
No Comments
Friendster is one of the top online social networks. Friendster has attracted more than 70 million members by staying focused on helping people stay in touch with friends, meet new people, and find things that matter to them. This one makes it easy to connect with family and friends, schools and groups, activities and interests. It’s also a good place to maintain a blog, as I do.
Friend me on Friendster.
Added by Austin S. Camacho on July 1, 2008 at 10:58pm —
No Comments
What a weekend it was for signing books. First I got to spread my novels across the globe from the Borders store in the Baltimore Washington International Airport. I learned there is a second, smaller Borders in that airport, and the manager asked to have some of my books shipped over there so she could sell them.
Saturday I spent a couple of hours in what turns out to be one of the smallest stores in the Books-A-Million chain. The folks at that store in Alexandria, VA told me…
Continue
Added by Austin S. Camacho on July 1, 2008 at 1:38am —
1 Comment
You'd have to be in Virginia to see me today at the Borders store in Dulles Town Center. But no matter where you are we could talk tomorrow.
Monday night I will be proud to be a guest on a blog talk radio program called Book Bridge: From Authors To Readers. The fifteen minute segment is a specialty program for African American authors to talk about how their books cross genres and appeal to a broad and varied audience. The show begins at 8:30PM Eastern and you're all invited to call…
Continue
Added by Austin S. Camacho on June 29, 2008 at 11:09pm —
No Comments
I told you that today I'll meet new friends at one of the Books-A-Million stores in Alexandria, VA from noon to 4 pm at 6230 N. Kings Highway.
Tomorrow I return to familiar ground at the Borders store in Dulles Town Center. The mall is at 21100 Dulles Town Circle in Dulles VA. I'll be there for the after church crowd, from 1 pm to 4 pm. Come by and say hi, and get a signed novel.
Added by Austin S. Camacho on June 29, 2008 at 12:29am —
No Comments
